We all marched down the street and past the Poe residence. We strode through the part of town we had arrived in and into the fields where the TARDIS was parked. The Doctor jumped ahead to enter the TARDIS. I made a move to follow him but to my surprise, Poe grabbed my hand.
"I'm never going to see you again, correct?" He asked. His dark eyes were filled with pain. I smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry," I said and glanced back at the TARDIS. How much could I say without giving anything away? "Don't stop writing." I settled on. Poe's eyes widened but I ran across him. "Yes, I know that you write. And, please, don't stop. Believe me, you're going to become one of the best writers there ever was."
Poe returned my sad smile and folded my hands in his. "I think we'll meet again, Miss Worthing; in this world or the next. I won't forget you." I opened my mouth to say something but next thing I knew Poe had pressed his mouth against mine. At first I was a little too shocked to respond to anything, but finally I just closed my eyes and kissed him back.
When he released me I turned away and disappeared inside the TARDIS. I found myself face to face with the Doctor, his head resting in his hands and looking quite curious.
"So how'd our dear Edgar take your little goodbye?"
"Oh shut up," I mumbled and strode past him. The Doctor smirked and bounded past me to the control panel. He started mashing random buttons into the panel.
"Out of curiosity, did you ever tell Poe your full name?" The Doctor asked. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"No; why do you ask?"
The Doctor frowned thoughtfully and jumped away from the control panel to a loose metal panel in the flooring. From the extra space he pulled out a dusty chest that looked like it hadn't been touched for years. He quickly broke the lock and opened the chest to reveal even dustier books. I watched him as he ran his fingers over the spines and mumbling thoughtfully to himself. Then he went, "Aha!" and yanked out a thin leather bound book and forced it into my hands.
"One of the original copies," He stated simply, as if that would clear everything up. "Go on and open it. You'll figure it out."
I glanced at him before opening the book to the title page. It was a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works. The Doctor raised his eyebrows at me before strolling casually back to the control panel. I flipped through the table of contents before seeing the poem I was positive the Doctor wanted me to see.
"Annabel Lee," I breathed. The Doctor continued to pretend that he wasn't eavesdropping. I sat down cross-legged on the metal panels and started to read the poem for what felt like the first time.
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came and bore her away from me, to shut her up in a sepulcher in this kingdom by the sea.
"That's a way to put the TARDIS," I said quietly. The Doctor swooped in a started reading over my shoulder. "And it looks like you're the highborn kinsman."
"Never thought of myself that way," The Doctor said, taking a seat beside me. He was looking at me seriously. "Are you still up for just one trip? D'you want to go home?"
I blinked at him. "Is it always like this? It seems to me that everywhere you go, trouble always seems to find you."
The Doctor nodded. "That's pretty much me. I can't promise you that we'll be safe all the time. But I can promise you that no matter what happens, I will protect you. That's a promise."
I found myself staring him down; staring into the warm brown abyss. I sighed. "Just answer one question for me." The Doctor stiffened; he already knew what I was about to ask. "What are you, and why did that Ala say you are supposed to be dead?"
That's how I learned about the Time Lords and the great Time War. The Doctor told me of Gallifrey, his home planet and how it had burned. He was the last of his kind. I saw that he was on the verge of tears once he had finished. Without thinking I reached forward and squeezed his hand. The Doctor glanced sharply at me and held my gaze. I needed him to realize that he wasn't alone anymore.
There was a sudden shift in the TARDIS's gentle movement. The Doctor jumped to his feet and dragged me with him to the panel and he stared at a monitor that I had never noticed before. He looked back at me excitedly.
"Remember how I told you I wanted to show you some space?" He asked in a hurry. I nodded. He bounded past me to the front doors. "Well here's something I think you'll like." He opened the doors.
In front of me looked to be a star, but the TARDIS was parked beside it. Swirls of green and pink and orange cascaded around the TARDIS and floated gently around our faces. I stared in wonder at the smooth swirls of the stardust as it got closer and closer.
"Watch out there," The Doctor warned gently as he caught me by the scruff of the neck right before I fell out of the TARDIS. I laughed and was quickly hypnotized by the star again.
There was a loud and cooing bellow coming from below us. I glanced down to find a lilac beast that was the size of an ocean liner just below us. As I stared closely I saw that inside its lilac skin was glimmers of sky blue and bright green. The creature let out another mournful, yet hopeful, sounding cry.
"What is that?" I asked quietly, not wanting to disrupt the perfect balance of the scene in front of me. The Doctor craned his neck out of the TARDIS while keeping his grip on me. He smiled.
"Star-whales; they're extinct now but I took us back far enough to see a whole herd it looks like."
"Herd?"
I looked down even farther to see that beyond our star-whale there were dozens of star-whales. I laughed softly at the sight of them. A smaller one floated right up to the TARDIS and batted its deep violet eyes at me; eyes the size of tires.
"I think its saying hello," The Doctor said in a slightly dreamy voice. The small star-whale sped up and passed the TARDIS and dove straight into where the most stardust was forming. The stardust cloud puffed out silently and evaporated into a million tiny pieces of crystal. The crystals floated gently into the TARDIS and the small star-whale cried with its conflicted voice.
I stared out at the star and watched as the star-whales basked in the eerie glow of the green and pink and orange swirls. I discovered then that the universe was dark and scary and sometimes, it could be evil. But with the last Time Lord at my side, I was able to see the gentle and beautiful side of the universe to. And that fact made my decision to stay all the brighter.